lørdag 25. september 2010

Fra Camino de Santiago til Camino de San Olav

Lørdag 19. september hadde vi – Knut Lillealtern fra Pilotprosjekt Pilegrimsleden og tre representanter fra Pilegrimsfellesskapet St. Olav  – gleden av å gå pilegrim  fra Skaun til Trondheim sammen med et følge på seks spanjoler og en italiener. Det var fire journalister, to representanter for  pilegrimsforeningen ACASAN og Luca Bocci som var reiseleder og tolk.
Los pergrinos
Fra venstre: Luca Bocci, Pater José María Blas Rodríguez Boyero(ACASAN), Nani Arenas (frilansjournalist),
Javier Jayme Bravo (journalist ABC), Rafaél Pérez (frilansjournalist), Bernando Aparicio Merino (ACASAN).
Fantástico!
Våre spanske venner hadde gitt seg ut på en ukes vandring langs utvalgte etapper av pilegrimsleden (13.- 19. september) . Både apostlenes hester og bilskyss  kom godt med.  Spanjolene var betatt av landskapet og gjestfriheten de opplevde. Og du kan si hva du vil om fabelaktige Camino Frances og Via de la Plata, men Camino de San Olav har sannelig også litt å by på. Som når John Wanvik kom roende over Gaula for å sette pilegrimsfølget over til Sundet gård der vi ble traktert med førsteklasses lunsj. "Fantástico!" sa våre peregrini. 

Les mer i Nani Arenas' blogg (på spansk)

søndag 19. september 2010

Well done

EC 2010 pilgrims with the two Norwegian bourdons in Santiago. From left to right: Catherine Vincent, Geirmund Lykke, Helga Lykke, Roland Martinet. Photo by le Fédération des Associations des Amis des Chemins de Saint Jacques de Compostelle

Partcipants from all corners of Europe arrived in Santiago de Compostela 18 September to join the festvities to celebrate the success of Europa Compostela 2010, the grand European pilgrim relay.

View images from the EC 2010 relay

View photos along the way from Stiklestad in Norway
We send heartfelt congatulations to the Fédération française des associations des chemins de Compostelle and to all our fellow participants! Thanks to all for taking part in this grand event!
:-)

lørdag 31. juli 2010

Pilgrims along the way

St. Olave’s Wirral-Chester Viking walk
by Stein Thue
With 20 fellow pilgrims,  Kjell Skartseterhagen, pastor from Nittedal (close to Oslo) and Stein Thue, representing the City of Trondheim, joined in the pilgrim walk from Neston to Chester in England.
Wirral Viking Walk
The map shows the route for the walk in honour of Saint Olav to Chester
In the English town of Chester, just north of Wales, we find St Olave's Church, a church from the 14th century named after Saint Olav, the patron saint of Norway. It stands confidently in its place on St Olave Street, but begging for rehabilitation and use. This summer a group of English friends of Norway arranged a pilgrim’s walk here to commemorate Saint Olav's Day on 29 July. Perhaps this celebration may speed up the restoration this cultural monument deserves.
Banished VikingsOn the Wirral peninsula between the rivers Mersey and Dee (see map), place names such as Meols (Old Norse: melr – sand dunes), Neston (old Norse: Nesstún – farmstead near the promontory) and Thingwall (Old Norse: þing vollr – assembly field) bear witness to an earlier settlement of Norwegian Vikings. They came here from Ireland after being banished from Dublin by their own compatriots. Anglo-Saxon Queen Æthelflæd granted these immigrants land by the mouth of the Dee early in the 900s.
Today, this region is called Little Scandinavia by the locals. And here Scandinavians and the British have coexisted more or less peacefully for centuries. Recent genetic research on Cestrians (natives of Chester) and Liverpudlians (natives of Liverpool) shows that some of them have Norwegian ancestry.
Norwegian sailors brought their traditions to Liverpool. One of these was the Norwegian dish "lapskaus" (stew) – and from this word comes "scouse". This term is commonly used by Liverpudlians to mean the dialect as well as the local population in this the city that is the proud home of the Beatles.
Cheerful Chester Pilgrims
Cheerful Chester Pilgrims

Saint Olav's Day walk with royal pilgrim guide
In recent years, English friends of Norway, led by Professor Stephen Harding from the University of Nottingham, have arranged Saint Olav's Day walks to St. Olave's Church in Chester. This year, Kjell Skartseterhagen, formerly pilgrim pastor at Nidaros (now a pastor at Nittedal near Oslo), and the undersigned were invited to join the walk.
Skartseterhagen had just finished guiding the Norwegian Crown Prince and his wife along part of the pilgrim path to Trondheim when he set course for England to accompany the English pilgrims.
On 31 July, when the walk started from St. Mary and St. Helen's church in Neston, Skartseterhagen spoke about the seven pilgrim principles: freedom, simplicity, slowness, silence, light-heartedness, sharing and spirituality.

“Bear in mind that the way home is also part of the pilgrimage,” the pilgrim pastor reminded his devout listeners, giving a deeper tone to their thoughts. Then the pilgrims commenced their walk to the Olav church in Chester, a distance of 20 kilometres.
The King who crossed the North SeaThe pilgrimage also entered Wales for some kilometres (see map), where the road signs are in two languages. We learn that "Welcome to Wales" is "Croeso i Gymru" in Welsh. It is time to stop and rest. While we eat our packed lunches, the pilgrim pastor tells about the life of Saint Olav to a very attentive audience.
Later we present a gift from the old city of Trondheim to our hosts. It is a concrete and symbolic reminder of the cultural exchange between our two countries: A copy of a king from the Lewis chessmen, in all probability made in Trondheim in the 12th century. A farmer found them in a sandbank on the island of Lewis in the Hebrides in 1831. Researchers believe that the chessmen were made by a stonemason working at the Church of Christ in Nidaros (the old name of Trondheim).

  Click to see the Lewis Chessmen
The originals – carved from walrus teeth – are kept in the British Museum and the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland. The chessman is received with admiration and smiles, not least because it says "Made in Great Britain" on the underside, even though the original was made in Trondheim and that the copy was obtained from the Visitors’ Centre at Nidaros Cathedral in - Trondheim. 
The Lewis chessmen
Curator Lyndsay McGill with a selection of the original chessmen from Lewis/Trondheim.
Photo courtesy by Steve Lindridge, National Museum of Scotland
Beauty Around UsWe continue our walk along the Dee, or Deva Fluvius as the Romans called it two thousand years ago. Soon we see the Roman city wall, the best kept in Great Britain. The Olav church is now right around the corner, but it is closed because of on-going construction work. So we improvise a simple farewell ceremony on St Olave Street. Here the "Vikings" perform two stanzas of 'Deilig er jorden', a Norwegian hymn, and it appears that the message is understood. Perhaps heavenly tones could be heard in this joyful pilgrim song?
The pilgrim pastor blessed the participants and then invited the host to take refreshments in the pub across the road, eminently suitable, even for pilgrims. Before we say our goodbyes and part our ways, we salute each other with a "Skol", Cheers for Chester and Pax et bonum.

mandag 19. juli 2010

Onwards with les Amis de St Jacques du Loiret

The Parisian pilgrims (Compostelle 2000) walked many a mile from Paris to the city of Etampes where there was an exchange of the bourdons to les Amis de St Jacques du Loiret, the members of which are depicted here. Ultreïa et bon chemin à tous!
Please click to enlarge photos

From Paris to Orléans

See photos of the pilgrimage from Paris towards Santiago de Compostela. The bourdons were carried along the Via Turonensis by members of les Amis de Saint Jaqcues from Paris to Orléans (8 - 15 July 2010). Photos from the remaining way of the relay - ending up in Santiago de Compostela 18 September 2010 - are available via the following links (at the bottom of this page).




Photos by René CHALOT

Ci-joint la traversée du Loiret du 10 au 15 juillet, avec un petit supplément depuis Paris,départ le le 8 juillet

8 juillet : Paris - Palaiseau
9 " : Palaiseau - Arpajon
10 " : Arpajon - étampes
11 " : Etampes - Autruy / Juine ( Loiret )
12 " : Autruy / Juine - St Lyé la Forêt
13 " : St Lyé la Forêt - Orléans
14 " : Orléans - Beaugency
15 " : Beaugency - Blois ( Loir et Cher)

Follow the French blog


torsdag 8. juli 2010

Walking the Tours Way

Click to enlarge photo

On the Tours Way: Europa Compostela participants gather in front of la Tour St Jacques - Paris, all set to carry an international collection of bourdons (pilgrim staffs) on the Via Turonensis to Santiago de Compostela. Note pilgrim leader Christiane Delattre with a Norwegian flag on the bourdon in front.

Ultreïa et bon chemin à tous!

Amitiés jacquaires

Pèlerins de Norvège


tirsdag 4. mai 2010

From Strasbourg via Paris to Santiago

Your pilgrim "baton" has arrived in Paris and is now stored safely in our office with Compostelle 2000. The pilgrims will start to walk with it from Thursday, 8th of July, after attending a Mass.



Photo: Stein Thue hands the relay baton over to Christiane Delattre in Strasbourg 28 April 2010.


Partcipants from Compostelle 2000 will then walk with it for 3 days until Saturday 10th July. After that it will be with pilgrims from the Orléans' Association.

Summary: On July, 8th : 21 km from Paris to Palaiseau ; on July, 9th : 19 km from Palaiseau to Arpajon ; on July, 10th : Arpajon to Etampes. It's on "Tours way" via Orleans as I'm also in charge of the "Tours way" via Chartres (7 days' walk).
To be continued ...

With kindest Regards. Ultreïa
Christiane Delattre
--

Find out more

Pilgrim's Passport
With "the Tours baton" comes a special Pilgrim's Passport issued by the Bishop of Nidaros and the Director of the Pilgrim's Centre in Nidaros, Berit Lånke.

We send good wishes and blessings to all partcipants in the EC2010.

Pax et bonum

Tor Singsaas
Bishop of Nidaros

Berit Lånke
Director of Nidaros Pilgrims' Centre

lørdag 27. februar 2010

Europa Compostela 2010
The European Pilgrim Relay

Trond Gilde, the first Norwegian partcipant in Europa Compostela 2010, started on his bicycle trip from Stiklestad towards Trondheim 26 February 2010. With the relay baton tied to his bicycle, he cycled all the 95 km to Trondheim where there was an exchange of the baton at Nidaros Pilgrims' Centre.

Participants from left: Geirmund Lykke (with skis) Trond Gilde in yellow jersey (with bicycle) and Stein Thue (bystander ;-). Enlarge photo

Our second participant Geirmund Lykke (and yours truly) continued on skis on the next stage from Trondheim to Ringvål 27 February. See photo. Click to enlarge

On the way towards Santiago there will be numerous exchanges of the baton through Norway, Denmark, Germany, France and Spain. Thank you and good luck to all partcipants!
Follow the Norwegian pilgrims' blog


See the first stage of the relay from Stiklestad to Trondheim on this map: